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Alexstraza comes out tomorrow, but how will she hear all the festivities...
...without any ears?
But, in all seriousness, where did her ears go? They were so cute and well animated in the Dragons of the Nexus cinematic, but said feature is nowhere to be seen on Alexstraza's in-game model. Did her file size, what with her dragon form and all, get too big to fit in the polygons needed for her ears? I know that was a problem for Varian, given that his four different animation sets (levels 1-9 where he one-hands Shalamayne, then three different sets of combat animations to facilitate his heroic talent options), and that certain things like Varian's face received less modeling attention to compensate for the swelling in file size his massive animation pool caused. Did something similar happen to Alexstaza? It's probably something as simple as a small modeling oversight, but I can't help but wonder if there's something more to the matter.
For example, just like how Hanzo is a little more buff in the Nexus than he is in Overwatch to make the model look more "correct" from a top-down perspective, I wonder if Alexstraza's in-game ears were left at the chopping block for messing with the silhouette of her horns, which are, admittedly, a much more interesting aspect of Alexstaza's model that are fairly distinct and, more importantly, patently specific to Alexstraza herself. Still, I can't help but be curious about whether or not there's something more to the situation, or if, conversely, I'm simply overthinking things. Regardless, it was a fun thought to entertain and play around with, so I thought I'd post it as a small little joke while I eagerly wait for Alexstraza to go live.
Remember, everyone; be kind to your draconic matriarchs while they're learning the ropes today! Throw 'em a bone and stand in that fancy circle she put on the ground; she made it special, just for you to get healed in! Well, that or everyone can stutter-step their way right out of the helpful mom van circles at the last second while chasing. That one's probably a bit more realistic, but you can't blame a support player for trying!
Edit: Fixed a small error — changed a 'when' to a 'whether'!
KinaBREW
You have an awesome head on your shoulders and you're thinking like a developer. File size played a part in the decision to hide her ears. Everything we do is for the game view and drawing the parallels between Hanzo and Alexstrasza is very astute. Silhouette from game view played a hand in why we hid them under her hair. Simple readable shapes are very important and even more important since we're pulling the camera back.
Waking up to read this made me smile. Thank you and enjoy playing Alexstrasza in the nexus. Be good to each other.